Music is a highly popular media on the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). For example, file-sharing software programs and systems such as Napster, iMesh and Gnutella enable users to share digital files containing their favorite music. Other Web sites enable users to listen to free musical selections and/or to purchase music that is of interest and/or to burn custom CDs (compact disks). In addition, an increasing number of musicians are turning to the Internet in order to promote their music, particularly musicians who are associated with independent labels or “indies”, who may not have access to the large commercial brick and mortar chains that sell music to the public.
Cellular networks of mobile phones represent an unexploited opportunity for distributing music and/or selling CDs and custom CDs, unlike e-commerce through the Internet, which is well developed. Since bandwidth and airtime are expensive, it is extremely beneficial in such an application to be able to limit the search for musical items to those items preferred or probably preferred by the customer. For a number of reasons, in particular the difficulty for the user to send data over the hand set by pushing keys on the set's keypad, and the high price of airtime, it is essential to be able to recognize a returning customer and send music of interest to this customer.